Former fugitive Amanda Sloan pleads not guilty, faces charges from two confrontations with police

SANTA CRUZ -- A Soquel Hills woman pleaded not guilty Tuesday to several felony charges stemming from her allegedly shooting at an officer through the sunroof of a BMW during a pursuit and threatening deputies with a gun when they caught up with her weeks later.

In the second confrontation, Amanda Sloan was shot in the leg by a Santa Cruz County Sheriff's deputy and arrested. The 30-year-old mother of three was pushed into court in a wheelchair Tuesday, her injured leg extended.

And while she was ill and agitated during two earlier arraignment hearings, she was calm Tuesday. At one point, she waved to her mom, who was sitting in the audience.

Public defender Nancy de la Peña entered not guilty pleas for her, and Sloan answered, 'Yes, your honor,' when Judge Paul Burdick asked her if she was giving up her right to a preliminary hearing within 10 days.

De la Peña said she had about 600 pages of police reports and other "discovery" on the case.

At the request of prosecutor Greg Peinado, Burdick set bail at schedule for the charges, bumping it from $750,000 to $900,000.

Sloan is accused of firing a shot at a Capitola police officer during a pursuit on Nov. 11, which started on 41st Avenue and ended with her escaping up Soquel-San Jose Road.

On Dec. 2, sheriff's deputies got word Sloan had returned to the Nicasio Way home where she lives with her mother and other family.

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Her husband, Jeff Stephensen Smith, 28, was shot and killed on the driveway of the home in August. Deputies have named a suspect in the homicide, Colin Sean Tisdale, but made no arrests. Tisdale is in jail on unrelated charges.

Sloan allegedly fired a gun from the home and then came outside and pointed it at herself before swinging it toward a deputy in a threatening manner, Sheriff's Lt. Fred Plageman said. He said a deputy fired multiple rounds from his issued rifle, striking Sloan in the leg after she ignored repeated commands to submit to arrest.

Her prior criminal history includes two prior misdemeanor convictions for battery on a police officer.

One of those convictions came after she was arrested May 12 in the Seacliff area on suspicion of meth possession, resisting arrest and battery of a police officer, according to records. In that case, Sloan kicked the door of a patrol car and hit a deputy in the face with a handcuffed wrist, according to the Sheriff's Office.

Outside court Tuesday, her mom, Suzanne Fox Sloan, said she is still working to obtain custody of her grandchildren and trying to get approval for her daughter to be able to talk to them.

She said she thought her daughter was somewhat numb from all that has happened.

"I think she's feeling overwhelmed; there has been so much raining down on her," she said. "My main message to her is that a lot of people love and support her. I'm so grateful to the mountain community people who know us and what we've gone through."

Sloan said her daughter lost several loved ones recently, including her father, her uncle, who was killed in a tractor accident, a great aunt, a dear friend who was hit by a car on his bike and others, before "Jeff got shot and died in her arms."